


Tales of the Vagabonds - Book 1: Velocity

by MadisynG



Category: Original Work
Genre: Africa, Cheetah - Freeform, Experiments, Genetic Experimentation, Hunter - Freeform, Kidnapping, Poaching, Running, Science, Superpowers, Torture, Velocity - Freeform, cruel - Freeform, savanna, speed - Freeform, speedster, superhero, wild
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-26
Updated: 2020-03-26
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:07:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23333614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadisynG/pseuds/MadisynG
Summary: Those monsters. What have they done to all of you?They'll pay for this. They'll pay for ALL of it.They've massacred you all...experimented on you for years until they found me...I won't let them get away with this. They'll pay just like they forced you to: in blood.
Kudos: 1





	Tales of the Vagabonds - Book 1: Velocity

"Hey, Amirah, on a scale of one to ten, how bad do you think it would be if I--"

"At least a twenty," I cut off my little brother with a harsh whisper, looking at him while we crouched in the savannah grass. 

"Yeah, but are you in?" My older brother spoke up. 

"This plan of yours is going to either get us killed or severely maimed," I whispered. "Of course I'm in."

At that moment, our older sister, Akilah, crept over, crouching beside me. "What's going on?"

"Shh," I shushed her. "We're going to go steal the lions' leftover food."

The older cheetah looked ahead of us to see a pride of lions sleeping after eating most of a zebra. Thankfully, each lion ripped off a sizeable piece so each of us could carry one. She looked at me with a serious expression. 

"Are you kidding? You'll get yourselves killed doing that! No one steals from the lions!" She hissed, then looked at my older brother once more. "You should be helping me stop them, Taonga!" 

"Hey, _you're_ the oldest," he whispered harshly. "It's _your_ job to keep me from getting convinced by Shukri's compelling arguments!" 

My little brother proudly puffed his chest out. He had long lost his black and white mantle, practically wearing his spots like a medal of honor. He was also the only cub in our clan that was younger than me. That is, until today. Our mother was supposed to give birth to a new cub today, making them a little over a year younger than Shukri. 

The two continued back and forth as I silently crept forward, closer to the pride of sleeping lions. I stopped just out of earshot of the lionesses.

"It doesn't matter," I whispered back to them. "We've been starving recently, and Mother is going to need food. Are you going to help us or not?" 

Taonga looked at Akilah questioningly as Shukri crept up beside me. Akilah sighed and nodded, joining the formation. We slowly crept closer to the pride, choosing the largest pieces that we could get closest to the tall grass. As I crept closer to my prize, I realized that an even larger piece of meat was sitting next to one of the lionesses sleeping on a rock. 

The others were easily able to sneak their pieces away into the grass without getting caught. Glancing around, I crept closer, carefully stepping out of the grass. I quietly padded closer to the lioness, sidestepping another one as she rolled over. I slowly leaned down, taking the piece of meat into my jaws and began lifting it, all the while, my eyes wide. The lioness was right in front of my face. 

I barely breathed as I carefully backed out of the group of sleeping lions, back into the grass. Once in the grass, I turned around to face my siblings. I paused as I saw my siblings' terrified faces. I dropped the piece of meat, tilting my head. 

"What?" 

I glanced behind me to see one of the lionesses in the process of waking up. My eyes widened as she glanced over at us, her eyes narrowing as she growled at us, waking the rest. I felt my heart rate speed up as the other lions saw us stealing their food. 

"RUN!!!" I shouted before picking up my piece of meat once more, and the four of us took off sprinting back to our den. 

I could hear the lions running after us, roaring angrily. I panted as I pushed my body to run as fast as I could, managing to outrun all of my siblings. It was widely known that I was the fastest cheetah in West Africa, but stealth was not my forte, which is what caused this predicament. I glanced back at my siblings to make sure that they were keeping up. I saw Shukri lagging behind, the lions gaining on him. 

My eyes widened as the lion running ahead of the others swung her paw at him, knocking him to the ground with a blow to his leg. I growled, turning back and running to his aid. The lioness raised her claw to swipe at him again, but I rammed my body into her side, tackling her to the ground. 

Before she could react, I leaped off of her, rushing to my little brother and surveying his injuries. Thankfully, all he had was a deep claw gash on his leg. I slung him over my back, grateful for his small size. I continued running, pushing legs as hard as I could to catch up to my older siblings, leaving the lions in the dust behind us. 

After a few minutes of running, we managed to get out of the lions' territory and back to our own. As soon as we knew we were safe, we stopped, all of us collapsing to the ground in exhaustion. Shukri slid from my back, laying on the ground and licking his wound. He dropped his piece of meat when he was attacked. I rolled onto my back as I dropped my piece, catching my breath. After a moment, my panting turned into laughter. 

My older siblings looked at me like I was crazy, Akilah setting down her piece of meat and walking over to Shukri's side, helping clean his wounds. Taonga looked down at me. 

"Amirah, you could have gotten us killed!" He exclaimed, making my laughter slowly die as I sat up. "Do you even realize the danger you put us all in with that little stunt? Shukri was almost killed!" 

"But I _saved_ him!" I hissed back, standing up and getting in his face. "I get it, I screwed up, alright? But at least I was able to save him this time!"

"That's not his point!" Akilah hissed at me. "The point is that you could have died! It was risky enough as it is, but you just _had_ to get greedy!" 

"I wasn't being greedy!" I spat back. "I know, I put you and Taonga and Shukri in danger, but I was trying to feed _everyone!_ " 

I growled loudly in annoyance, picking up my piece of meat and beginning to walk away toward the den. It was a short enough walk to where I could still hear my siblings talking. 

"Do you think we were too hard on her?" Taonga asked Akilah. 

"She's going to get us all killed," Akilah said. "Either us or herself, whichever comes first."

These words only fueled my anger as I neared the den. I pushed through the brush that hid our den, looking at the small clearing that we called home sweet home. There I saw something that made my anger melt away completely. 

My mother lay in the center of the clearing, a small cub feeding from her. Their black and white mantle was visible as they curled up to her abdomen to eat. I couldn't help but smile at my mother as she looked up at me. She smiled softly as I walked over to her, dropping the piece of meat that I had worked so hard to steal from the lions. She tilted her head. 

"Where did you get this?" She asked. 

"I don't want to talk about it," I said, turning my attention to my new sibling. "Who's the new cub?"

"This is your new little brother," she said. "His name is Asad." 

I chuckled slightly, gently nuzzling my new brother. "It's perfect."

I looked up, seeing my other three siblings approaching the den. My sour mood soon returned, and I stood, walking back to the edge of the den. 

"I'm going for a run. I need some alone time."

Without another word, I took off at a sprint away from the den, breezing past my siblings out to the open savannah. 

I ran and ran as far as I could. That was what I did whenever I needed to think. I was always able to outrun my siblings, so they would never be able to follow me. Not that they wanted to, anyway. 

I kept running, feeling calmer with the wind against my face. My eyes narrowed as I saw some sort of truck at the edge of the savannah ahead of me. They weren't moving or anything. 

Suddenly, I felt a sharp sting in my neck, and I stumbled to a stop. I wobbled on my feet as my head began spinning. I couldn't see straight. I felt my body become weak, and I fell to the ground, laying on my side. I could see the faint outline of a human in dark clothing with a gun jogging toward me, followed by a human dressed in some sort of white coat. Then, everything went black. 


End file.
